FR Doc E9-14296[Federal Register: June 18, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 116)]
[Notices]
[Page 28944-28945]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18jn09-39]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of Defense, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District, Sacramento, CA; U.S.
Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Sequoia & Kings
Canyon National Parks, Three Rivers, CA; and Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of
Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the
completion of an inventory of human remains and associated funerary
objects in the control of the U.S. Department of Defense, Army Corps of
Engineers, Sacramento District, Sacramento, CA, and in the physical
custody of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of
California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, and the U.S. Department of the
Interior, National Park Service, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks,
Three Rivers, CA. The human remains and associated funerary objects
were removed from within the boundaries of Lake Kaweah, Tulare County,
CA.
This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003 (d)(3).
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the
museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the Native
American human remains and associated funerary objects. The National
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.
An assessment of the human remains in the physical custody of the
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology was made by the museum's
professional staff. Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks also did an
assessment of the human remains and associated funerary objects in
their physical custody. The assessment of the cultural affiliation for
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District was based on a
Corps of Engineers contracted study done in 2004, titled ``Cultural
Affiliation of the Lake Kaweah Property, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Sacramento District.'' These assessments were made based on the results
of an extensive study utilizing the four fields of anthropology. Copies
of the report were sent to representatives of the Big Sandy Rancheria
of Mono Indians of California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians
of California; Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California;
Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa
Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table
Mountain Rancheria of California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule
River Reservation, California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of
the Tuolumne Rancheria of California. Consultation was also carried out
by Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks' professional staff with the
following non-Federally recognized Indian groups, which represent
traditionally associated peoples who have maintained interest in
previous repatriation and reburial efforts for the area: Dunlap Band of
Mono Indians, Sierra Foothill Wuksachi Tribe, Sierra Nevada Native
American Coalition, and Wukchumni Tribal Council.
Between 1959 and 1961, human remains were removed from CA-TUL-145
(``Cobble Lodge''), Tulare County, CA. In 1959, the human remains were
removed during an excavation of a borrow pit in support of the
construction of Terminus Dam and the creation of the reservoir that
forms Lake Kaweah, a Federal project undertaken and still managed by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Between 1960 and 1961, human remains
were removed during salvage work being carried out by Dr. Jay von
Werlhof, under contracts coordinated by the National Park Service at
the request of the Army Corps. The report by Dr. von Werlhof (1961)
identified 130 individuals and 502 artifacts. An unidentified number of
fragmentary and skeletal remains were re-interred at the site following
the field work. Human remains were transferred to the museum at the
University of California, Berkeley. Additionally, human remains and
associated funerary objects were deposited at the Ash Mountain
Headquarters of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. One brownware
pottery vessel had been transferred to the University of New Mexico
(Maxwell Museum), and is now in the physical custody of the Sequoia &
Kings Canyon National Parks. The human remains in the physical custody
of the University of California, Berkeley and Sequoia & Kings Canyon
National Parks represent a minimum of five individuals. No known
individuals were identified. The 120 associated funerary objects are 16
projectile points, 25 bifaces and fragments, 5 modified flaked stones,
18 flaked stones/debitage, 16 ground stone artifacts, 16 steatite
artifacts, 1 brownware pottery sherd, 1 brownware vessel, 6 faunal
remains, and 16 marine shell ornaments.
The Cobble Lodge materials in the possession of Sequoia & Kings
Canyon National Parks have been re-examined by URS, Inc. (Browning and
Nilsson 2007). The artifact assemblage includes chipped stone
projectile points (Desert Series, Cottonwood, Rose Spring, and Sierra
Concave Base), steatite vessels and beads, marine shell ornaments, and
the single brownware vessel. These temporally diagnostic artifacts
support an interpretation that the site is a multiple component site
that would have been occupied circa 300 B.C. to A.D. 1850. The report
by von Werlhof (1961) interpreted Cobble Lodge to be a late Prehistoric
housepit village and cemetery, and to have been permanently occupied
until the early 1860s. This suite of artifact types is most strongly
affiliated in the archeological record with the Yokuts and Western Mono
(Monache) cultural groups.
Geographic and linguistic evidence also places Yokuts and Western
Mono (Monache) groups within the western foothills of the southern
Sierra Nevada during this time period. Descendants of the Yokuts and
Western Mono (Monache) are members of the Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono
Indians of California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of
California; Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; Picayune
Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa Indian
Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table Mountain
Rancheria of California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River
Reservation, California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the
Tuolumne Rancheria of California.
Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District and
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks have determined that, pursuant to
25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains described above represent the
physical remains of five individuals of Native American ancestry.
Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District and
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks also have determined that,
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(A), the 120 objects described above are
reasonably believed to have been placed with or near individual human
remains at the time of death or later as part of the death rite or
ceremony. Lastly, officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento
District have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), there is
a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced
between the Native American human
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remains and associated funerary objects and the Big Sandy Rancheria of
Mono Indians of California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of
California; Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; Picayune
Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa Indian
Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table Mountain
Rancheria of California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River
Reservation, California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the
Tuolumne Rancheria of California.
Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary
objects should contact Richard Perry, NAGPRA Point of Contact, USACE
Army Corps of Engineers, 1325 J St., Sacramento, CA 95814, telephone
(916) 557-5218, before July 20, 2009. Repatriation of the human remains
and associated funerary objects to the Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono
Indians of California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of
California; Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; Picayune
Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa Indian
Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table Mountain
Rancheria of California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River
Reservation, California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the
Tuolumne Rancheria of California may proceed after that date if no
additional claimants come forward.
Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District are
responsible for notifying the Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono Indians of
California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of California;
Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; Picayune Rancheria
of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa Indian Community of the
Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table Mountain Rancheria of
California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation,
California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the Tuolumne
Rancheria of California that this notice has been published.
Dated: May 18, 2009
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-14296 Filed 6-17-09; 8:45 am]
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